When driving in the evening and attempting to locate street addresses in residential neighborhoods and commercial areas, the address numbers are more often than not difficult, if not impossible to read at dusk or after sundown. One must often direct headlights or flashlights on the front or sides of buildings to determine whether or not he or she has arrived at the correct destination. The difficulty in reading address numbers is particularly concerning for first responders in emergency situations.
Various types of illuminated address numbers are known in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,780 and U.S. Pat. Appln. Nos. 2005/0024855 and 2015/0055329 each disclose illuminated building address signs. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,327,511, 5,007,190 and 5,573,328 and U.S. Pat. Appln. No. 2004/0022069 each discloses solar powered illuminable building address numbers and signs.
However, none of the prior art set forth above provides address numbers with the ability to individually collect and store solar energy during daylight hours and individually illuminate each number at nighttime when one or more photosensitive sensors in each individual number would be activated. The individual numbers are separately mountable on a building by means of nails, screws or adhesive bonding and thus can be easily individually replaced when needed. Use of solar energy to completely power the illumination of the numbers at night would result in great savings in electricity to residential consumers and commercial establishments. The present invention provides the foregoing features by providing individual address numbers which have the necessary elements and circuitry to gather and store solar energy for use in the evening to power light emitting diodes to illuminate each respective individual number.